Tactile Learners: Get With the Groove of Latin

Latin class, in fact most classes, in the classical setting tend to be taught from a more verbal perspective. Even the songs and jingles are music and rhythm mixed with verba. Students, who have good listening skills, tend to do very well in Latin class, since Latin is verbal. Obviously Latin is verbal in natura. Other languages, such as Sign Language, can be physical, but how do I make Latin a physical activity?

My third grade students must learn Latin and they enjoy learning the language of the ancients, but P.E. is "cool." They just love P.E. What is a physical fitness class but a language of anatomy, the movement of each sinew, muscle, and bone as the student surges up the hill to beat his or her friend. The student learns how one becomes swifter and more agile, through practice and hard work. How do I, the teacher, make Latin just as "cool" as racing a friend up a hill?

Albrecht Durer

Although there is debate about whether certain students learn better through tactile learning or not, I have a few students who really benefit from the physical language of each Latin word. The students and I make up an action to go with each chanted Latin word. Much like how a student can associate a Latin word with an English word in order to remember the Latin word's meaning, my students dance or move to the Latin word in order to remember its meaning.

If your Latin class feels stagnant or just plain boring, take your students on the playground and move to the music of Latin. The tactile learners in your classroom will start to remember Latin words better and all your students will enjoy the change of pace. Not all learning is done by sitting at a desk.

As a classical Lutheran educator, this also brings to mind the process of learning from participating in church. The churchgoer doesn't just sit there, melting into a gelatinous goo of apathy. No, he or she may stand, kneel or fold hands. Actions help us to remember important things. Actions are just as important as words and they should reflect what we speak or say. If we are remembering the Trinity, let us stand. If we are praying, let us bow our heads and fold our hands.
Words and actions go together. A rhetorician points to what he speaks of and pounds his fist for added force. He throws his hands towards the heavens and claps his hands. In fact, it is said that the Roman people got used to hearing Cicero's signature rhythm at the end of his sentences that they started clapping to the rhythm.
Latin should not seem like a chore but a memory game. If you get your students to believe that they are playing a game then they will want to learn Latin.

Caesar's De Bello Gallico...Pueris

Caesar et Periculum Frigidi

Julius Caesar

Caesar in Gallia pugnabat. Gallia est patria frigida. 
Multi Galli sunt socii sed multi sunt hostes. 
Caesar multos milites et equos habebat, sic cibum ab Gallis rogabat.
Galli nec pabulum nec frumentum ab agris non habebant.
Caesar est miserus sed movet milites et equos protinus.

This passage will work well with young students who are learning Latin from Latin for Children Primer A.
Many of the words found in this passage are from the first 18 chapters of that particular series. I'll post back here how my third graders did with the passage. Happy translating!

Listed below is a glossary for some words.

Glossary
frigida: cold
hostes: enemies
milites: soldiers
sic: so
rogabat: he was asking (asked)
ab: from
protinus: forward

P.S. - If you are wondering where I got the idea for this passage, I got the idea from reading De Bello Gallic I : Ch. XVI.

Cicero Loves Himself

"Real Latin" has no commas. Therefore I prefer to look at and think about Latin without commas. Sometimes it can bring out hidden meanings and connotations. English is a sad, flat language, which cannot do the wonderful things that Latin can.

I finally finished Cicero's In Catilinam II! I am very excited to share a neat passage with you from the last part of the speech. Cicero is quite full of himself. He says:

Atque haec omnia sic agentur Quirites ut res maximae minimo motu pericula summa nullo tumultu bellum intestinum ac domesticum post hominum memoriam crudelissimum ac maximum me uno togato duce et imperatore sedetur.

Here's my rough translation of Cicero's poetic prose:
And yet all these things were done thus Quirites that the greatest things by the least commotion, the highest dangers by no tumult, a war foreign and domestic after the most cruel and greatest memory of men calms me, alone a leader and general wearing a toga.

My English translation does not do this passage justice. He addresses the Quirites about great things and cruel memories that need to be quelled quietly without too much incident. Cicero ingeniously loads the sentence up with oxymorons that are chiastic. "Maximae" is next to "minimo" and "summa" is next to "nullo." Cicero is ingenious for clouding up the sentence with these pithy poetics, but the real bit is at the end. He adds that he alone is the one, "uno." He will save the great Roman state from loud and obnoxious destruction. The Quirites must not have painful memories and Cicero himself will make it so. He is at the end of the sentence along with the "sedetur," the calming. Cicero loves being the dux and imperator. Yes, Julius Caesar was really not the first imperator and he will certainly not be the last. Cicero was a wonderful read. Now it's on to Caesar's De Bello Gallico. Caesar is less poetic and more subtle than Cicero. Caesar understood the power of the sword. A sword is much more subtle than a long-winded speech.
Long Live Latin!

Creating Wonder in Students for Latin

Latin can easily become a subject of drudgery and boredom for students. A teacher may only have thirty to forty-five minutes to teach a Latin lesson packed with vocabulary and grammar rules. Forty-five minutes barely gives a teacher time to make sure each student has each vocabulary word memorized and each chant internalized, but it's important to try to do a little extra at the beginning of class to give each student a sense of wonderment towards Latin.

One great way to exact wonderment from your students is by reading a few lines of Latin from an interesting piece of literature. Read it out loud several times. Get your students accustomed to hearing the Latin words. Read it slowly then read it fast. Read it loud and read it in a whisper. It's helpful to pick passages that have Latin words which have similarities to English or Spanish words. Stop on those familiar words and eye your students. Say, "What does that word sound like?"
The result will be that each students' eyes will widen and they will possibly be more attentive during class.

One passage I love to use with my students (I did this last week.) is a silly passage from Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis translated by Peter Needham. Even if your students have little Latin knowledge they know the characters from Harry Potter:

Dudley magno cum sonitu coepit lacrimare. Non vero lacrimabat, multos iam annos non vero lacrimaverat, sed sciebat si vultu contorto ululatum emisisset, matrem sibi daturam esse quidquid vellet.

'Dinky Duddidule, ne lacrimaveris, Matercula non ei permittet perdere diem tuum festivum!' clamavit, bracchiis eum amplexa. (pg 18)

Dudley with a great noise began to cry. Not really was he crying, for many years now he did not really cry, but he knew if he sent out a cry with his face twisted, he would get whatever his mother gave to him. 'My Dinky Dudley, do not cry, your little mother does not allow your festival day to be ruined because of him (Harry)!" she shouted, having held him in her arms.

The difficult thing about employing this way to create wonder and excitement for Latin is that one has to read lots of Latin in order to pick out wonderful passages like this. So read as much as possible! 

Teaching Latin to Third Graders

I've been teaching at Immanuel Lutheran School for one month now and I have tweaked so many things just within a month: discipline, order of the day, procedures...the list goes on. I just wanted to share a few things that I decided to do differently with teaching Latin to third graders.
Repetition is very important when teaching third grade and so applying this to Latin is essential. In the mornings we used to go over only the memory verse for the week but now we also go over the Latin chants as well. This gives them extra Latin practice even if they don't have Latin class on that specific day.
This brings me to another important element of Latin: Chants and more Chants! Latin is the language of music and so a Latin paradigm (such as the first declension noun endings) can become easy to memorize when it has a "sing-songy" element to it. Young students also love chanting. They memorize through chanting and singing with great ease.

I am using the Latin for Children Primer A textbooks and from using these in past years I have found that some chapters should be learned before others. For instance I have my students learn Chapter 4 before Chapter 3 because Chapter 3 is heavy on grammar. They need to learn the "-a, -ae, -ae" chant before they can learn the noun jobs for the different cases. Through a year or so of experience I have found it's better to teach them the meat of something first and then add the seasoning later. The meat being the memorization part of Latin (chants and vocabulary) and the seasoning being Latin grammar.

Paenitens Fur

Puer qui docuerat fraudare ab matre adolevit adultus et erat publicus. Unam diem comprehensus est fraudans et damnatus demori. Dum ambulandus ad effectum adiit matrem et dixit:

“Ecce tuum laborem! Si non fraudare docueras, hoc sufferam.”

“Equidem,” dixit mater, “qui, te oro, docuit te comprehenderi?”

Moralitas: Tu duces tua membra.

Lupus et Agnus

Agnus consecutus ab Lupo fugit in templum.

Lupus dixit sacerdotem te capere immolareque si ibi manes.

Agnus dixit esse tam bonum immolari ab sacerdotibus tamquam masticari ab te.

Meum amicum,  acutum esse mihi videre te agitantem tantam interrogationem ab solo importuno conspectu. Non esse tamquam bonum mihi.

Moralitas: Cum aspexit cum duobus infortuniis, delegit alterum quod favit maximo hoste minor.